Origins.

As first president of the United States, George Washington appointed the entire membership of the Supreme Court, but he had to wait for Congress to decide, among other things, how many judges would sit on the Court. Sen. Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut (later chief justice) drafted the Judiciary Act of 1789 providing for six judges on the Supreme Court. Washington signed the bill on 24 September 1789 and on that same day sent to the Senate the names of six men to hold the highest judicial positions in the new republic. The president wrote: "Impressed with a conviction that the due administration of justice is the firmest pillar of good government, I have considered the first arrangement of the Judicial department as essential to the happiness of our Country, and to the stability of its political system." Of the six men nominated by Washington...